


Clone Talks

by Ecarden



Series: Justice In Many Flavors [2]
Category: Stargate SG-1, Young Justice (Cartoon), Young Justice - All Media Types
Genre: Clone Talks, Gen, Talking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-14
Updated: 2021-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-22 19:07:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30043347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ecarden/pseuds/Ecarden
Summary: Jon can't avoid it anymore. Superboy wants to talk.
Series: Justice In Many Flavors [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2210148
Kudos: 6





	Clone Talks

**Author's Note:**

> A brief side story that didn't quite fit in the main story here.

Well, the moment had come. He’d tried to avoid it without anyone noticing, but he couldn’t manage for long. Superboy was after him. They lived in the same place and the kid had superspeed and supersenses. It was a tribute to Jon’s special ops training and experience that he managed to avoid it for as long as he had, but it was time.

“Jon, we need to talk.”

Time, to have the talk.

“Oh, no. Are we breaking up?” Jon tried to escape.

Superboy just stared at him, confused. “Uh…what?”

“In pop culture ‘we need to talk’—” the kid was giving him the puppy-dog eyes. Jon gave it up as a bad job. “Nevermind. What’s up?”

“You’re a clone too.”

“Yep.”

“How?”

“Aliens.”

“What…I mean…how…does your progenitor…”

“Progenitor?”

“The person you’re a clone of.”

“Ah. Well, he found me pretty creepy. Living proof that he’d been kidnapped by aliens and all. It’s one reason I’m over here and he’s way the hell far away. So we don’t stumble over each other.”

“But, don’t you want…”

“I want the life that was taken from me, yes. But I can’t have that. It’s his. For a while I was really pissed about that. For a while I tried to follow the ruts of his history, to recreate his life, but I couldn’t do that. Finally, I decided it was a gift. I’m not him, not anymore. I choose to be someone else and do something else. I have that freedom, because I’m not bound by the borders which constrain his life.”

“I’m for…I was made to be…”

“Yeah. I was made to be a temporary replacement so nobody knew my progenerator—”

“Progenitor.”

“Right, that, was missing. But here’s the thing, my creator was an asshole. Your creators are also assholes. Remember the part where the guy chugged an experimental formula and went crazy and tried to smash everyone?”

“Yes, but I know…”

Jon waited silently this time.

“I know in my _bones_ what I’m for. And I can’t do it. I can’t even get near Superman.”

“So, you don’t want to change what your purpose is?”

“No!”

“Then let’s walk through it. What is your purpose?”

Like he’d triggered programming, Superboy recited the answer, "I am the Superboy. A genomorph. A clone made from the DNA of the Superman. Created to replace him should he perish and to destroy him if he should turn from the light."

Jon nodded. “And has he?”

“What?”

“Perished or turned evil?”

“No.”

“So, if that is still what you want to do, then you need to prepare. What is Superman?”

“A symbol. A protector. An alien.”

“So, you’re a clone, like me. An outsider, like him and me. That last one I think you’ve got. You do need to learn more to be an effective protector, but Wonder Woman is helping with that. So then there’s that last part, a symbol. What does it mean?”

“He’s a symbol for America, for the League, maybe even for Earth?”

“Of what?”

“Cultural dominance. He could have done a thousand things. Any things. But because he grew up here, in our culture, he became a superhero. A protector. He is proof of the goodness of our society, for that is what its most powerful member became.”

Jon blinked at that. It really wasn’t the answer he was expecting.

“And you’re on your way with this team. It’s transparently set up to lead to League membership. Every mission brings you closer. So long as that’s what you want. Something to remember, that I only learned when I left. You can _always_ change your path. The strings that bind you can hold you upright, or hold you prisoner. The people around you can help or hurt you. But in the end, if that goal stops being what you want, you can always step away and find another. It would be hard for Superman to do for all the reasons you say you want to be like him. It would have been very hard for my original because of the duties he had accepted. But we are freer than they. There is a gift in that. In being who and _what_ we are.”

“I hadn’t thought of it like that.”

Jon noticed the twist away and the shift in facial expression. Superboy was not good at hiding his emotions.

“But you don’t agree?”

“Sorry.”

“Don’t be. If you’re free from Cadmus and Superman and the world’s expectations, you definitely don’t need to bow to mine. That’s how I think about all this. What works for you…you’ll figure it out.”

“When?”

“Dunno. Took me months to end up here and I had help along the way. Black Canary will help you, if you let her.”

“Shouldn’t need it—”

“Everyone needs it. Most people don’t even notice they’ve got support unless it disappears. You and me, one of the worst things about our position is that we jump into the world fully formed, but without the support which usually grows up around a person from the time they’re a child. So, we have to build those ties, deliberately. We won’t just inherit our families and friends. We have to choose them. There’s freedom there, but also a hell of a lot of work.”

“I’ll think about it,” Superboy said, though he was still grumpy.

“I understand,” Jon put a hand on the taller kid’s shoulder. “And just so there is no confusion. You are my friend and I will support you.”

There was an awkward moment of silence.

“Thank you.”

Jon stepped away.

“I’ll help you too, Jon,” Superboy said to his back, just loud enough for him to hear. Jon smiled as he walked away. That had been less bad than he’d feared, but god did he hate talking that much. He missed the SGC where he could just prompt everyone else to do the talking. Except Teal’c.

Still, he was building his own team here, even if other people thought they were in charge of it. And if anyone threatened that…well, plasma burned as hot as the sun. That would probably be enough.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments always welcome.


End file.
